Forest Hills Upper Busway On Washington Street Razed Over The Weekend

Barletta Heavy Division Inc. brought in the enormous tracked demolition claws and jackhammers at 2 a.m. Saturday. By 5 a.m., the first canopy sections crumpled, and by the end of the day, the upper busway on Washington Street opposite Asticou Road was down.

By Sunday afternoon, the surface busway was open again for passengers, but this will only be used for about a year. A new busway is being built where the old MBTA parking lot used to be, set on a platform that will extend over the Hyde Park Avenue parking lot.

The changes are part of the massive Casey Arborway project that is changing the face of Forest Hills and Jamaica Plain. Here’s the scene Monday morning as commuters saw a whole new view of the station entrance from the upper busway.

Chris Helms

Canopy-free upper busway at Forest Hills Station, Oct. 5, 2015.

The pillars for this platform will be built this fall. Here are some more photos from the weekend’s demolition:

Richard Heath

The wrecking claws began ripping down the upper MBTA busway Saturday at 5 a.m.

Richard Heath

The Washington Street busway was built as part of the new Forest Hills Station between 1985 and 1987. It was designed by Charles Redmon of Cambridge Seven Associates

Richard Heath

The new busway will be built at the end of the deck over the tracks in this location. This area has now been completely leveled and graded

MassDOT

The new Washington Street busway and canopy will be located in the former MBTA parking lot. Site layout and engineering was done by HNTB, and designed by URS architects and engineers (now Aecom Corp. of Los Angeles). Louis Free is the chief designer. It is in the 30 percent design stage.

The busway will extend on a platform over the Hyde Park Avenue parking lot. Foundations for the supports have been completed and 47 posts will be built this fall. URS architects and engineers (now Aecom Corp.)

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The city's Go Boston 2030 transportation plan supports extending the Green Line's E-branch from Heath Street to Hyde Square, which the Arborway Committee for Public Transit fully supports. “A one-seat ride into the central subway with direct connections to the Red, Orange, and Blue Lines would be a boon for Hyde Square residents and businesses," said Franklyn Salimbene, chair of the Arborway Committee for Public Transit (ACPT), via press release.

Longtime Jamaica Plain resident Andrew Haines contacted the Arnold Arboretum to see if they had an art exhibition planned to capture the changing Forest Hills area. They liked the idea so much they invited Haines to create his own exhibit.

Forest Hills Station will be taken back down to one track starting March 25 as part of the Casey Arborway project. The plan is the same as from when the T shut down one track from September through December.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation's Forest Hills construction project is a complete and utter debacle. A pedestrian approaching the MBTA station from central JP is greeted by foot-tall grass, months-old litter strewn everywhere, hedges that have not been trimmed since at least last year and a complete appearance of property neglect.

On a sun-flooded morning, hundreds of families from Bromley Heath apartments sat in overflow chairs in a crowded tent to listen as Mayor Marty Walsh and Boston Housing Authority William McGonagle renamed the development Mildred C. Hailey Apartments. Joining them was Anna Mae Cole, a friend and comrade in arms for over 60 years and former chair of the Bromley Heath Tenant Management Corporation that Mrs. Hailey (and yes she was always Mrs. Hailey) directed for 40 years.

Thanks for tracking down the new busway elevations. About the first drawing and the middle one reading “Forest Hills Station”: the landscaped portion on the street side will be substantially bermed, forming a hump that will hide the buses from the street and neighbors somewhat. And there will be sidewalks and a bike paths between the landscaping and the street. The headlights of the exiting buses will be deflected away from the abuting neighborhood by a raised isalnd at the exit.

Karen

Unfortunately the Hyde Park Ave side got no amenities or protection from headlights. And we got all the school bus traffic! Despite promises from MassDOT and BTD to share info on traffic and design with neighbors we got only excuses.

Clay Harper

I’m not a wiz on the plans for the eastern side of the station. But the parapet wall between the completed new upper busway and, well, the air above the lower lot is tall enough (three feet?) to prevent headlights from shining off beyond Hyde Park Ave to the W’s – or do you mean headlightzs from the lower lot?

As I understand it, the eight school buses per school day moving off-street to their own dedicated area should be a net positive to the overall vehicle traffic flow around Forest Hills. It’s a change, but should be better than before: off-street is less disruptive to other vehicles, safer for the kids.

Karen

Thanks for your thoughts.

People forget about the multi-story apartment building on Hyde Park Ave directly across from the T lot. The edge of the new busway and thus buses will be much closer to those residents. They were not given any opportunity to see plans and point out the need for light and sound mitigation. We asked at two meetings and got promises of future mtgs that never happened.

I hope it is really only 8 buses. MassDOT indicated that the number of buses was higher but couldn’t say how many. They also said there would be a lot of drop off and pick up traffic from parents. Again, neighbors were promised data, BTD expressed concern too. Nada.